Anatomy of a Quick MMA Defeat in Tokyo By Barry Guerin
7/20/08 Tokyo, Japan.
To gain positive from the pain, that is where I am at now and that starts at the dojo revamping my flaws, for myself and for my students. The photo to the left was taken at the M-1 Challenge event right after Japanese doctors stitched me up in a little medical lab below the ring at Kourakuen Hall. I can accept a defeat. If you are an undefeated MMA fighter you are either a rookie or untested. Even the M-1 icon Fedor Emelianenko has at least one defeat. Being a patient on the other hand, is not in my agenda. I know exactly why I ended up on the operating table and I will share with you my diagnosis. On
Saturday
July 12, I received an email from my friend Jerry Millen that he was in town (Tokyo). Along with some others we spent a long night in Shibuya. Jerry joked to me If I wanted to fight if his light heavy weight couldn't make it. I said, "I am in teacher shape but not pro shape, but what the hell, I'll do it." After a totally useless Sunday I got an urgent call on Monday. "Can you fight?" I told Jerry I was in. I had 3 days to get my mind, body, and spirit focused. There is not much you can do conditioning wise in 3 days, except stay loose, stretch, eat right, sleep right and have light workouts.
I was able to size up my competition at the weigh-in and press conference. He was heavier, taller, better reach and in better shape. The only thing in my favor was that I didn't have to cope with jet lag. I really wanted to know his style and more about him. However, his manager was very vague. "Grappler" and "Karate" came up. But his true style showed up the night of the fight which was Muay Thai. Here is where my mental plan started to fall apart. I spent too much time contemplating his possible style for an edge when I should have just focused on my own and plan, my opening chess moves. If my strength lies in submission and his lies in striking, then I should have just taken this bad bro down, right? Yes, that's right, but my confidence in my striking was much higher than my confidence in my conditioning. The plan was to land some heavy leg kicks, test his chin, then take him down. His plan won. I am always looking for a mental edge in a fight, but focusing too much on the other fighters abilities and style is basically a guessing game.
When I entered the ring I felt loose and even. The fight started slow and his fists sped up. My first obvious mistake in the fight as you can clearly see, which still pisses me off, is that I let my hands go down. I actually couldn't believe that my hands went down to block or grab his low kick. It is just such a stupid and fundamental error not to always keep your hands up, especially at the beginning of a fight when you will be amped up on adrenaline and when one can perform some supernatural feats of speed or strength. Right when I made that pivotal mistake of letting my hands drop I should have went into basic mode and let my muscle memory of what I know best: Takedowns and submissions, takeover. I could have, should have faked a quick jab and closed the distance and tied him up. Body or mind. this is where the fight game gets interesting. When to speed it up with full auto-body control or pick someone apart with slow-mental motion.
To the left and to the end. It was a straight left that delivered the message to my legs to stop working. All I remember is stumbling back and getting blasted a few more times. My body was not taking direction. I could not even get in the guard position. The ref stopped the fight. A good decision but I was stunned, bummed and bleeding. The coordination started coming back to my body and Christian form Team France who I just fought came up to me and said he was sorry. I told him I was ok and shook his hand. The rest of my hearing started coming back and I could hear the crowd and my coach for the night Heath Sims from Team Quest. Heath looked at the cut across the bridge of my nose and said, "That's Nasty." I followed him back in into the locker room and read the back of his shirt, "Pain is just fear leaving the body."
There was no pain in my body, that comes the next day before you pop a pain killer. There was only regret and disappointment from not performing to my capabilities. If my opponent would have broke my nose and cut me up and it went to a decision, I can live with that. Making simple mental errors and getting TKO'd in under a minute... That is the hard pill to swallow.